by Gray Graham

It is a fact that the majority of Americans that are eligible to vote don't exercise that right. When you think of our history as a country; the deaths and personal sacrifices so many went through so that future generations could vote you should be shocked and amazed. It is not like these struggles were 500 years ago. For most of us these struggles were only in the last 30-100 years. We see people around the world fight and die for these same rights that we as society have just thrown away.

I have heard many reasons but they all boil down mostly to three categories: People don't believe that the government is what we believe it is, the conspiracy theorists. People live in a fantasy world of wishes when it comes to politics. People simply do not care.

Conspiracy theorists come in all different shapes and sizes and range from the UN is trying to take over America to the Illuminati actually runs the world. There is not much you can do to convince a conspiracy theorist to change their world view. Once you drink that potion and go down that rabbit hole you never escape and you will forever see ghosts around every corner and under every rock.

Then there are those that live in fantasy world. Now they don't just live in a fantasy world when it comes to politics but in their everyday lives. These tend to be the people that simply believe something that facts prove are untrue. No matter how many times you or their own experience proves they are wrong they will still hold on to their beliefs. Again nothing in life is probably ever going to change their mind.

And then you have the other group that is probably the largest, they just don't care. They tend to be so caught up in their lives that they could care less about politics. This could be because they either plan on working the system regardless of who is in charge to their advantage or they could be conspiracy theorists but just not as far gone as the others. Maybe they haven't drank the potion but they suspect something is up mainly because of JFK and Watergate. Or it could be that they just realize that the deck is stacked against them. That the wealthy hold all the power and therefore make all the rules and nothing they do is really going to change that. This is probably the group that feels the most helpless.

I am not sure if education can change these perceptions but we as a country have to do something to change this tide. Probably the first thing we need to do is to make voting as easy as possible for everyone across the country. After that is done then we need to work on teaching people about how our system of government works without the political filters.Once we get more people participating in the system then we will have more minds and energy working to make the country better for all and not just the few. Voting enables the people to have the power, but they have to work to be able to use it effectively. Work is hard and something most people avoid. We can only hope voting is something that most will choose to do.